Develop the project budget—Determine Budget

COST BUDGETING involves aggregating estimated costs of individual schedule activities or work packages to establish cost estimates and a total cost baseline.  The baseline is used to measure project performance.

BUDGETING INPUTS include formal periodic limitations of project fund expenditures, which are contained in project charters or contracts. These constraints are part of the SUMMARY BUDGET, which is provided by the project scope statement.   A PMP Prep Course will include examples of this.

THE PROJECT SCOPE STATEMENT provides the summary budget, which includes funding constraints due to pending funding authorization by the buyer's organization or other entities such as government agencies.

MANAGEMENT CONTINGENCY RESERVES are budget items which are not included in the project cost baseline, but are included in the budget for unplanned changes to the project scope and cost. PMP Exam Prep will review this and associated templates.

TOOLS & TECHNIQUES USED IN COST BUDGETING:

PARAMETRIC MODELS are mathematical models used to predict total project costs. They are simple and the most reliable when the model is scalable, accurate historical information is used to develop the model, and model parameters are quantifiable.

FUNDING LIMIT RECONCILIATION necessitates date constraints be imposed for some work packages. Significant variations in periodic funds expenditures are unacceptable. Expenditures are reconciled with funding limits.  This may necessitate work be rescheduled or adjusted to regulate or regain control of expenditures. Date constraints for some work packages may be required to accomplish this.

In this task, the project manager develops a project schedule using the project timeline, scope, and resource plan.

The objective of this task is to manage timely completion of the project.

The Time Management activity definition process identifies the specific schedule activities which must be performed to produce various project deliverables.

The activity definition process identifies the deliverables at the lowest level of the WBS (the work package).

Output from previously performed project integration and planning processes is used to define the schedule activities.

The project manager utilizes the following to define the schedule activities:

the scope baseline
organizational process assets
enterprise environmental factors

Internal organizational process assets and enterprise environmental factors used to define the schedule activities
include:

organizational policies
the historical information project calendar
resource availability

Defining schedule activities involves:

identifying the planned work
documenting the planned work

The activity definition process implicitly defines and plans the work so project objectives will be met.  Scheduling activities provide a basis for:
scheduling
estimating
monitoring
controlling

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Develop the project schedule— Sequence Activities

Develop the project Management schedule— Sequence Activities:

Finish-to-Finish Activity
Start-to-Start Activity
Start-to-Finish Activity

MANDATORY DEPENDENCIES are those that are inherent in the nature of the work being done. One activity must be completed before the successor activity can begin. The PMP exam will test on this.

DISCRETIONARY DEPENDENCIES are usually based on knowledge of best practices within a particular application area or when a specific sequence is desired.

EXTERNAL DEPENDENCIES are identified during the process of establishing the sequence of activities. The project manager discovers that Activity ‘B’ cannot begin until Activity ‘A’ is acquired, or processed, from outside the scope of work. These dependencies involve a relationship between project and non-project activities.

MANDATORY DEPENDENCIES are often referred to as hard logic, since they are inherent in the nature of the work being done. For example: Activity ‘A’ must be completed before Activity ‘B’ can begins.

THE SCHEDULE NETWORK DIAGRAM TEMPLATES (SNT) are standardized, and used to expedite preparation of networks of project schedule activities (such as projects with identical deliverables).  Portions of a project schedule network diagram are sub-networks, or fragment networks.

THE SUBNETWORK TEMPLATES are useful when the project includes several identical, or nearly identical, deliverables, such as floors, layers, levels, etc.

ACTIVITY ATTRIBUTES are sequencing outputs used for project schedule development. They are also used for selecting, ordering, and sorting planned schedule activities within reports. They are updated to include the defined logical relationships and any associated leads and lags.

REQUESTED CHANGES are activity sequencing outputs that are the result of a divided or redefined schedule activity, or an adjusted lead or lag.

Develop the project schedule— Estimate Activity Resources:

THE ACTIVITY RESOURCE ESTIMATING PROCESS allows the project manager and team to effectively estimate the type and quantity of necessary resources.

ESTIMATING SCHEDULE ACTIVITY RESOURCES involves determining what, when, and how much of  human resources, equipment, and materials will be available to perform project activities. Labor that lacks knowledge or experience, limited or unusable equipment, or lack of stockpiled materials will incur additional time and/or cost. The Project Management PMP includes this concept.

ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESS ASSETS provide policies of the performing organization regarding staffing, equipment and supply rental or purchase. Historical data regarding what resources were used on similar past projects can be helpful.

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Scheduling software and the PMIS!

Scheduling software and the PMIS are considered enterprise environmental factors. Enterprise environmental factors are external environmental and internal organizational environmental factors that influence the project's success.  PMP preparation includes hands-on use of scheduling software.

TEMPLATES made from information from similar past project's activity lists are often used for a new project. Templates typically contain related activity attribute information such as:

resource skills and required hours
identified risks
expected deliverables lists

TEMPLATES may be used to establish SCHEDULE MILESTONES.

Rolling Wave Planning involves:

planning short-term work in detail at low levels of the WBS
planning future work at high levels of the WBS that will be detailed  within one or two periods

The project manager utilizes the following to define the ACTIVITY LISTS are documented tabulations of schedule activities showing:

the activity description
the activity identifier
scope of work
  
The Schedule Activity Scope of Work may be represented:

in physical terms (pipe)
by the number of drawings
in lines of computer program code
in the chapters in a book

ACTIVITY ATTRIBUTES are used for:

project schedule development- selecting, ordering, and sorting planned schedule activities within reports

Schedule Activity attributes include:

time leads and lags
resource requirements
the person responsible for executing the work
logical relationships
activity identifiers
activity description
predecessor and successor activities
imposed dates
constraints and assumptions
the place, type of work, and effort

Milestones required by the contract are considered MANDATORY MILESTONES.

OPTIONAL MILESTONES are those based on project requirements or on historical information. PMP Exam Preparation includes examples of these.

THE MILESTONE LIST is a component of the project management plan and used in the schedule model.

Develop the project schedule—Sequence Activities
The activity sequencing process provides a means of identifying and documenting dependences among schedule activities.

Activity sequencing outputs include:

project schedule network diagrams
project document updates

Schedule activities are logically sequenced using:

precedence relationships
leads
lags

Product characteristics can affect activity sequencing. THE PROJECT SCOPE STATEMENT characteristically describes major project deliverables, objectives, assumptions, constraints, and the statement of work, which also impacts activity sequencing.

PRECEDENCE RELATIONSHIPS  used in PDM networks may be:

Finish-to-Start
Start-to-Finish
Finish-to-Finish
Start-to-Start

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